The Price of Laughter
by alicenotinwonderland
Summary: Katie Bell is sad about how her last year at Hogwarts ended. She hates seeing everyone so miserable. The end of the year is supposed to be happy, not depressing. So, she uses an unsuspecting Cormac McLaggen to help her cheer everyone up.


**This is a little oneshot written for the Clue Prank Competition**.

_**Cormac McLaggen **_**used the _Geminio Charm _at _Hogsmeade Station._**

**I hope you like it!**

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><p>Katie Bell looked around her sadly. It was the end of her worst year at Hogwarts. All around her, students were walking up and down the platform at Hogsmeade station, trying to get on the waiting Hogwarts Express. Every face was sad. There was no excitement on the first years' faces; Katie knew many of them might not return the following year. There was no anticipation in the expressions of her fellow seventh-years; she knew no one was eager to go out into the real world now with Dumbledore gone and You-Know-Who in power.<p>

Katie hated it.

Her last year at Hogwarts was supposed to have been fun. She was supposed to be standing on the platform looking forward to life outside school and smiling nostalgically at the excited faces and chatter of the younger students. Instead, she had been cursed, missed half her last year, attended Dumbledore's funeral and messed up her NEWTs. She didn't want her last school year to end like this, in so much sadness. She hadn't seen a single smile at Hogwarts for the last few weeks.

"I did the Geminio Charm perfectly! The stupid examiner was an old rival of my Uncle Tiberius. He took away marks for no reason at all! I definitely deserve an 'O' in charms." The loud, arrogant voice of Cormac McLaggen reached Katie easily over the low, subdued conversations of the other students.

Katie grimaced at the reminder of the exams. She hadn't been able to do the Geminio Charm in the exam at all. Suddenly, an idea occurred to her – a way to bring some cheer to her last day.

"Hey McLaggen," she said, striding over to him, "I bet that's just empty bluster. Leanne told me you only managed to duplicate half your objects."

"That's nonsense! I replicated all of them perfectly. I even used the Gemino curse impeccably. That takes quite some skill, I'll have you know," asserted McLaggen.

"I bet you 10 galleons you can't cast a proper Geminio charm," taunted Katie.

"Oh yeah? Get ready to lose then. Give me something to duplicate," sneered McLaggen.

"Try hitting these," said Katie. She conjured up three water balloons and tossed them into the air.

"That's too easy. Geminio!" said McLaggen. His spell hit the balloons. Some of the students noticed them and moved out of the way but six unlucky students got drenched. One boy was laughing so hard at the sight of his confused, wet friend that the friend hexed him. The students laughed as they spotted the two boys, one wet and the other sporting bright orange antlers, running around the platform, the antlered one swearing revenge.

"That's not all I can do," McLaggen told Katie. He crept over to where a Slytherin prefect was telling off a scared first year boy for magically attaching red and gold streamers to the inside of his sleeves. The prefect looked disgruntled as he pulled the streamers out, but not before McLaggen whispered, "Geminio."

The prefect pulled a long streamer out. Another one appeared in his sleeve. Bemused he pulled that one out. Yet another long paper string of red and gold poked out of his sleeve. He pulled that out to have _another _long streamer appear in his sleeve. The first year boy cracked a smile and soon, everyone around him was also laughing at the sight of the poor prefect yanking streamers out of his sleeves like an amateur Muggle magician.

McLaggen moved on to another Prefect walking by with a bag. The prefect set the bag down as he pushed his trunk onto the train. "Geminio," McLaggen thought, showing off his prowess at non-verbal spells. The prefect turned around and looked surprised at finding _two_ bags instead of one.

Katie silently pointed her wand at the duplicate bag, unnoticed by McLaggen. As soon as the prefect opened the fake bag to check which one was his, he was hit in the face by a horrible mixture of mud and slime and feathers. Everyone burst into laughter at the sight of the boy who now resembled a chicken that had been dragged through a swamp.

McLaggen found his next target. A girl was throwing a packet of Bertie Botts' beans at her friend. "Geminio," he muttered. The packet split into two and at the same time, split in the middle, showering the unfortunate girl with multicoloured beans.

"You did that on purpose!" she squealed at her friend.

"I did not!" the girl protested.

"I'll get you back for that!" said the bean-covered girl. She pulled a cream filled chocolate out of her pocket and flung it at her friend. The other girl ducked just in time and the candy hit a boy eating a pumpkin pasty behind her, splattering his head with cream.

He spun around. "Hey!" he yelled, throwing his pasty at the girls.

"Geminio," muttered McLaggen, multiplying the pasties.

The girls dodged the pasties flying at them and the sweets hit another pair of unsuspecting students who immediately retaliated by throwing the cauldron cakes they were just about to bite into.

"Food fight!" shouted an excited first year.

Suddenly the platform was full of laughing students throwing whatever sweets they had saved for the train journey at each other. Someone had found the lunch trolley and everyone was delightedly throwing food at each other, laughing at their friends expressions when they got hit. McLaggen was moving between the students, using the Geminio Charm on the food too.

In the middle of all the pandemonium, a first year's trunk fell open and Weasley firecrackers burst out of it. "I'm good with the Gemino Curse too, look at this," boasted McLaggen, looking at Katie. He pointed at his wand at the fireworks, using the Gemino Curse. Many copies of the fireworks were created as they shot towards the sky, putting on a beautiful display. Everyone stopped throwing food at each other and looked up at the sky, laughing and cheering.

"Pay up," smirked McLaggen, holding out his hand to Katie. She gave a defeated grimace and handed over ten galleons. But when he was gone (gloating even more than usual) she looked around her. All the students were covered in cream and chocolate and lots of food items (and slime, feathers and orange antlers too). They all looked absolutely ridiculous but, for the first time in weeks, they also looked absolutely happy. They were laughing and chatting excitedly, just as though this was a normal end to a normal year. Her plan had worked perfectly. McLaggen had just cheered everyone up without even realizing it.

"_Really,"_ thought Katie, smiling, _"10 galleons was a reasonable price to pay to hear everyone's laughter."_

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><p><strong>I don't know if it was funny enough but I hope you enjoyed it!<br>**

**Please review :)**_  
><em>


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